Anna, of course, could read and write herself—she was deliberately making Mia read it aloud.
Suppressing the pain coursing through her body, Mia followed Anna's gesture. Before her stood a large house with a plaque hanging above it, inscribed with the word "Caution."
"Caution," Mia read aloud.
"Exactly, Caution!" Anna's face lit up with that same cryptic smile.
With that, she strode to the door, lifted the lock securing it, and pulled a silver hairpin from her hair. Inserting it into the keyhole, she fiddled with it a few times until the lock clicked open.
Mia was utterly stunned, watching Anna's series of practiced movements. She couldn't believe this was the pampered Anna Ivan she knew. It was so unlike her—could someone be impersonating her?
Anna stepped into the room, but when she noticed Mia wasn't following, she came back out, impatient. "Spacing out again? Haven't you had enough? If you want to stand there like a statue, I'm not sticking around!"
Anna Ivan's disdainful and cold stare felt so familiar to Mia. "Who are you really? Why are you pretending to be the young lady?"
Mia's words drew a mocking chuckle from Anna. "Don't play dumb! You're wondering why I can fly and pick locks, aren't you?"
Mia fell silent, her thoughts exposed. She hadn't dared to ask directly, so she'd tried this approach instead.
"Sometimes I think I've underestimated you. Not much courage, but plenty of little tricks! But no matter how clever you think you are, you're still just a lowborn nobody!"
Her words made Mia clench her fists. She wanted to retort but, as always, didn't dare.
"It doesn't matter if I tell you," Anna continued, her tone tinged with sorrow before shifting abruptly. "Because once I reveal the secret of 'Caution' to you, I might get kicked out of the Moore estate myself." She paused, then added with a bitter irony, "It's laughable, really. Every daughter of the Ivan family is trained in these two skills—flying and lockpicking—practiced in secret from a young age. Do you know why? So that when we marry into wealthy families, we can uncover their secrets, giving the Ivan family leverage to control them. The real purpose of an Ivan daughter's marriage is to seize the immense wealth of her husband's family, elevating the Ivan family's prosperity to unmatched heights!"
"So, you married Young Master Henry for the same reason?" Mia asked, looking at Anna standing on the stone steps.
Mia's question silenced Anna. Just when Mia thought she would stay quiet, Anna finally answered, "Yes."
Her response sent a chill through Mia. If that was true, Anna could have already leaked countless Moore family secrets, putting the entire estate in grave danger.
"But…" Before Mia could press further, Anna spoke again. "I've never betrayed Henry."
"Why not?" Mia asked, puzzled.
"Why? Why…?" Anna's voice softened as she drifted into thought, a flicker of sadness crossing her usually cold face. "Because I fell in love with him… I love him so much I'd give everything for him."
"So, even when I found the ledger my father desperately wanted, I burned it… Loving someone who doesn't love me back, I betrayed my own father…"
"Young Lady…" Mia looked at her with a pang of sympathy. Anna's expression stirred compassion in her. Choosing between family and love—what a painful dilemma.
Anna Ivan lifted her head, catching Mia's sympathetic gaze. She scoffed with disdain. "I don't need pity from someone like you! Besides, you're the one who'll need pity soon enough. Save it for yourself!"
Seeing Anna Ivan's smug expression, clearly relishing the anticipation of Mia's distress, Mia's legs trembled uncontrollably, refusing to obey her will to take a single step forward. Yet, what was destined to happen could not be escaped, no matter how much she wanted to flee.
As she stepped into the room named "Caution," a gust of cold air hit her, chilling her heart.
The room's interior was unremarkable, similar to others, except for the faint, stale odor that lingered due to its long abandonment.
But this didn't seem to be what Anna Ivan wanted her to see. She gestured for Mia to continue deeper into the room.
"This is a forbidden area, so I thought it held some grand secret of the Moore family. But when I snuck in and saw what was inside, I realized this secret brings me more joy than anything else—because it will bring you endless pain!" Anna Ivan said, stopping in her tracks and watching Mia approach slowly. Mia's pale, almost ashen face gave Anna a twisted satisfaction, knowing she could deeply wound her.
Hmph, don't blame me—blame yourself for provoking me. A lowly servant like you, why should you be showered with so much affection? Why should you sit side by side with me? A servant belongs where servants belong!
Mia's slow steps irritated Anna. Losing patience, Anna strode forward, grabbed her, and dragged her into the inner room. "Don't be foolish! Do you think ignoring the truth will make it disappear? I'm telling you, even if you refuse to face it now, you'll find out eventually. And when Leader Arthur tells you himself, won't that hurt you even more?"
At first, Mia resisted, hating Anna for forcing her to confront her greatest fear. But Anna's words made her stop struggling.
She was right. Wasn't that why Mia had come? Because she feared the devastating blow of hearing the truth from Arthur's own lips?
When Mia let go of her resistance, Anna easily hoisted her up, carried her into the back room, and threw her onto the floor. "See it now? This is why Leader Arthur named this room 'Caution'—and the real reason he keeps you by his side, showering you with affection!"
Mia hit the ground hard, the cold stone floor sending a chill through her hands as she braced herself. The icy sensation seeped into her heart. Anna's words made her lift her head in dread—
"Take a good look, 'Miss' Mia!" Anna declared. "This is the secret Leader Arthur hides in 'Caution'!"
Anna casually pulled a painting from the desk and unfurled it before Mia. The sight left Mia utterly stunned. "See it? The entire room is filled with them! No matter where you look, no matter how many drawers you rummage through, you'll only find these identical portraits—nothing else!"
Mia was shocked speechless. As she looked up, she saw the room was covered with paintings. The walls, bookshelves, racks, even the floor nearby, and an unfinished canvas draped over the desk—all bore images of the same person. And that person looked exactly like her!
What was this? Mia's eyes widened in disbelief. Why were there so many portraits here? Who was the person in the paintings? Why did they look so much like her?
Staring at the portrait Anna Ivan held before her, a thought slowly began to fill Mia's mind…
"This room is filled with thousands of portraits—tens of thousands! These couldn't have been painted overnight. Even if Arthur painted four portraits a day, it would take seven or eight years to complete them all! And back then, you would've been, what, eleven or twelve at most? Even if Leader Arthur had met you then, how could he possibly predict what you'd look like years later?" Anna, knowing the answer, cruelly taunted Mia.
Mia's thoughts were overwhelmed by shock, leaving her speechless, unable to respond to Anna's biting sarcasm. "Caution, as the name suggests, means holding onto a heart. This room has long held Leader Arthur's heart! His heart belongs to the person in these paintings. You? You're just a substitute who happens to look strikingly like her—a mere shadow, never the real her. Arthur doesn't love you; he loves the person in these paintings! Did you really think you could win his affection? God gave you a face similar to hers. But imagine, if one day Arthur finds someone who resembles her even more closely than you do, what will happen to you? You'll be cast aside without a second thought! Everything you have now will vanish like a dream, and your friends will mock you, laughing at a sparrow who dared to dream of becoming a phoenix!"
"No, stop, don't say any more!" Mia covered her ears, crying out in despair, shaking her head frantically, unwilling to face the cruel reality.
"Stop? You want me to stop? Impossible! I'll keep talking until you're too ashamed to live in this world, until you have no chance to act superior in front of me, until you lose everything you have!"
Seeing Mia's pain, Anna Ivan reveled in her triumph, laughing coldly, her smile as sinister as a demon from hell come to claim her soul.
"Oh, right, right! You must want to know where the person in the paintings is now, don't you? She's right here!"
Dropping the painting in her hand, Anna walked to a bookshelf covered with portraits. She yanked away a painting that concealed something behind it, revealing a small plaque with the words: "The Beloved Spirit of Caution."